Stories from Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Center Stage at Three Rivers College will close out its 2014-15 season with Nunsense at 7 p.m. Aug. 6-8 and 2 p.m. Aug. 9 at the Tinnin Fine Arts Center. Tickets are $10 general admission and $5 with a student or college ID. They can be purchased in advance at the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce and the Three Rivers Financial Services Office. Tickets also will be sold at the door...

By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH Associate Editor Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs knows the importance of having a local law enforcement training academy. When the Missouri Sheriffs' Association Law Enforcement Training Academy relocated from his department to Three Rivers College in 2011, Dobbs served as its host sheriff. In recent years, he also has served as one of the academy's instructors...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer Individuals from Ellsinore, Poplar Bluff and Puxico were elected Saturday to the Ozark Border Electric Cooperative Board of Directors, during an annual meeting on the Three Rivers College campus attended by approximately 3,000 people...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer Poplar Bluff City Council members delayed the selection Monday of a replacement for council member at large Dr. Jack Rushin, who resigned in July. The council voted to hold a special meeting in the next week to allow the public to meet with the applicants for the position...

By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH Associate Editor The owner of Brick's Off Road Park recently responded to a Missouri Department of Natural Resources' investigation in which suspected violations involving the Little Black River and Beaver Dam Creek were found to have occurred during its Trucks Gone Wild event...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer The Poplar Bluff City Council has no desire to handcuff the advisory group which oversees the city electric department, but needs to maintain the right level of involvement, council member Philip Crocker said Monday. Crocker, the city council representative for the group, asked Municipal Utilities Advisory Board members to help the council find a middle ground between an autonomous board and the current structure. ...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer The Poplar Bluff City Council voted 5-1 Monday to reclaim a more than $200,000 debt owed to the city for unpaid Internet access fees. The money is owed by Poplar Bluff Internet, which did business as semo.net and was owned by Brian Becker of Williamsville, Mo...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer New requirements of Poplar Bluff landlords and stronger rules regarding grass cutting could be ahead as officials consider ways to clean up local neighborhoods. City manager Mark Massingham presented city council members with a list Monday of possible changes to city codes...

By PAT PRATT Staff Writer The smoking versus non-smoking debate in Poplar Bluff restaurants went viral on social media last week - at least on the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook page - when three local eateries announced they would ban cigarette use effective Aug. 1...

By PAT PRATT Staff Writer Poplar Bluff Police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol met with Poplar Bluff R-I school officials on Monday to discuss traffic control in light of the many logistical changes related to district construction. The meeting between school administrators and public safety on the eve of school opening is usually a run-of-the-mill occurrence. ...

Sat. market inconvenient Who decided the Farmer's Market should be one day a week and on a Saturday? I work downtown and used to depend heavily during growing season on the kiosks set up on the Black River Coliseum parking lot during the week. I often stopped on my way home from work to pick up fresh produce. I have yet to get to the Saturday market--too inconvenient...

By MICHELLE MALKIN The gruesome hits keep coming for the baby butchers of Planned Parenthood. President Obama and his top health officials have one last-ditch response left: Quick, hide behind the imaginary mammogram machine! As more graphic, money-grubbing undercover videos of Planned Parenthood's for-profit aborted baby parts racket emerge thanks to the investigative work of the Center for Medical Progress, desperate Democrats are in full deflection mode. ...

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER WASHINGTON -- Christianity, whose presence in the Middle East predates Islam's by 600 years, is about to be cleansed from the Middle East. Egyptian Copts may have found some respite under Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, but after their persecution under the previous Muslim Brotherhood government, they know how precarious their existence in 90 percent Muslim Egypt remains. ...

John D. Henggeler John D. Henggeler, 56, of Poplar Bluff, passed away Saturday, August 1, 2015 at his residence. Arrangements are pending and will be announced by Cotrell Funeral Service.

Rt. 34 in Wayne Co. is 1 lane Route 34 in Wayne County will be reduced to one lane as Missouri Department of Transportation crews perform bridge maintenance. This bridge is located between Winn Street and County Road 341. Weather permitting, work will be performed 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily Tuesday, through Thursday, Aug. 6...

Paul Henson Piedmont, Mo. - Paul Henson, 81 of Piedmont, passed away Sunday, August 2, 2015 at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Arrangements will be announced by Morrison-Worley Funeral Chapel, Piedmont.

Willie "Bill" Sells Naylor, Mo.- Willie "Bill" Grover Sells 76, of Naylor Mo., passed away Thursday, July 30 surrounded by family in Virginia Beach, VA. Bill was born February 7, 1939 to the late Charles and Lillian (Kelly) Sells. He married his high school sweetheart and love of his life, Janet Marlin on November 7, 1959...

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to rein in federal agencies with legislation to bring all new major rules for a Congressional vote before implementation. The bloated Code of Federal Regulations is more than 175,000 pages long, and just last year federal regulators in the Obama administration issued 2,400 new rules. ...

By MICHELLE MALKIN "All cops are bastards!" "F**k cops!" "This is what white supremacy looks like!" On a tranquil Sunday afternoon in Denver, hate-mongering zealots hijacked a rally held by citizens and families of fallen police officers, who had gathered to pay tribute to Colorado's honorable men and women in blue...

June Hopkins Brantley CAMPBELL, Mo. - Elva Marie "June" Hopkins Brantley, 84, passed away on Aug. 1, 2015, due to complications from congestive heart failure. June was born July 27, 1931, at Caraway, Ark., the daughter of Elmer Borden and Margaret Evelyn (Whited) Garner. She was raised by her mother and her stepfather, Clyde Vernon Brown, who moved the family from Arkansas to the Glennonville area when June was 16 years old...

Muriel E. Bates Muriel E. Bates, 88, of Poplar Bluff, Mo. died Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015 at her residence. She was born Jan. 16, 1927 in Shirley, Ark. to the late James Arlie Rollins and Ollie Viola Anderson Rollins. She was a longtime resident of Poplar Bluff. She attended Church of Christ Church...

When the 2014 boys soccer season ended on a sour note for Poplar Bluff, its prospects for the 2015 campaign weren't hanging their heads. They were looking ahead to next season. The Mules enjoyed their best season last fall, winning a district championship and advancing to the MSHSAA Class 3 quarterfinals before losing to eventual state champion Webster Groves. ...

Jimmie Midgett DEXTER, Mo. - Jimmie Charles Midgett, 64, of Dexter, formerly of Risco, died Friday, July 31, 2015 at his home in Dexter. Funeral services will be Wednesday Aug. 5, 2015 at 12 p.m. in the Watkins & Sons Chapel in Dexter, Missouri with Rev. Lewis Scott of Marble Hill, Missouri officiating. Burial will follow in the Missouri Veteran's Cemetery in Bloomfield, Mo. with Watkins & Sons Funeral Service of Dexter in charge of arrangements...

All 11 proposals to the Missouri State High School Athletics Association Constitution and By-laws were passed in May at the annual MSHSAA election. Communications director Jason West spoke in detail about this year's revisions and several new changes to championship venues in a recent phone interview...

Gladys Holford BLOOMFIELD -- Gladys Fay Holford, 80, of Bloomfield, Mo., died Monday, Aug. 3, 2015, at the Crowley Ridge Care Center in Dexter, Mo. Visitation will be from 5-8 p.m. Wednesday at the Chiles-Cooper Funeral Home in Bloomfield. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Thursda at the Chiles-Cooper Funeral Home in Bloomfield. Burial will follow at the Walker Cemetery in Bloomfield with Chiles-Cooper Funeral Home of Bloomfield in charge of arrangements...

Sharon Mae Goodman Sharon Mae Goodman, 97, of Dexter died Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015 at Southeast Health of Stoddard County in Dexter. Visitation was from 12:30 - 2 p.m. today at the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home with the funeral service beginning at 2 p.m. at the funeral chapel with Rev. Joe Payne officiating. Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in charge of arrangements...